Ryan Bañagale Ph.D.

Ryan Raul Bañagale is an Assistant Professor of music at Colorado College where he offers classes on a range of American music topics, including musical theatre, jazz, popular music, folk music, and media studies. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University with support from the American Musicological Society’s AMS-50 and Howard Mayer Brown Fellowships. His first book, Arranging Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and the Creation of an American Icon (Oxford University Press, 2014), focuses on the ongoing—and surprising—life of Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue over the course of the ninety years since its inception. He currently sits on the editorial board of the George Gershwin Critical Edition and will be editing at least three separate arrangements of Rhapsody in Blue. His research also appears in journals such as Jazz Perspectives and the Journal of the Society For American Music.

Ways to Connect

Ryan Banagale is one of the co-hosts of Critical Karaoke, which can be heard on a rotating basis during the KRCC Presents… time slots, Fridays at 7 PM and Sundays at 4. He's also part of the daily Monday – Friday "A Day in the Life" modules.

On this episode of Critical Karaoke we are talking about “cover songs.” Songs that were written and recorded by one artist, but go on to be re-recorded and re-performed by many other artists in many other genres—it is kind of like karaoke of existing songs, but it is critical? Join us as we discuss covers of "No Diggity" by Blackstreet; "King Porter Stomp," first composed and performed by Jelly Roll Morton; and “The World Turned Upside Down” by Leon Rosselson. All than and more, including a special "cover band" name pop quiz.